Taxpayer-Funded Bailout Tab Soars to $3.7 Trillion

How does one wrap their mind around this? The government's line of life support for U.S. financial firms has reached a whopping $3.7 TRILLION. Over the past year alone, the bailout has swelled by $700 billion, according to Reuters.

The TARP watchdog says the $700 billion financial sinkhole last year was a direct result of Obama's failed housing rescue program. Once again, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are leaving taxpayers high and dry (and broke):

Increased guarantees for loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, the Government National Mortgage Association and the Veterans administration increased the government's commitments by $512.4 billion alone in the year to June 30, according to the report.

"Indeed, the current outstanding balance of overall Federal support for the nation's financial system...has actually increased more than 23% over the past year, from approximately $3.0 trillion to $3.7 trillion -- the equivalent of a fully deployed TARP program -- largely without congressional action, even as the banking crisis has, by most measures, abated from its most acute phases," the TARP inspector general, Neil Barofsky, wrote in the report.

What a loaded statement. The bank crisis has, "by most measures" resolved itself, yet the amount of money the government is pouring down the drain continues to increase. Meanwhile, Congress apparently isn't even holding the purse strings. How's that for accountability and transparency?!

The report provoked swift criticism of Obama administration housing policies from U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican who has taken every opportunity to blast the Treasury's handling of financial bailout programs.

"The fact that the Obama administration is treating TARP like its own personal slush-fund is beyond egregious and a complete betrayal of what the American people were told would be then when their tax-dollars were used to bailout Wall Street," Issa said in a statement, adding that the housing efforts were "dumping good money after bad".